Coasters An Illustrated History
Introduction Although in common use, the term ‘coaster’ is unsatisfactory. If it simply means ‘a ship which trades on a coast’ it covers a range from the smallest craft to the very large bulk carrier or tanker, as vessels of all sizes have from time to time been employed between ports on the same land mass.The term ‘coaster and short-sea trader’ is more accurate but clumsy. For the purpose of this book, ‘coaster’ is understood to mean a sea-going craft largely intended for operation over modest distances. It works between two or more ports either on the coast of one land mass or requiring a sea passage of anything from hours to a few days.The dimensions of length, beam, water and air draught of coasters are usually strictly limited by the ports, harbours and waterways likely to be used and by the sizes of shipments expected to be carried. The size of a coaster and its short range should not be taken as an indication of its lack of seaworthiness. Conditions on the short sea passages that coasters routinely undertake – such as on the Irish, North, Baltic or Mediterranean seas – can be hostile. In certain circumstances, coasters can and do make successful ocean crossings, for instance on delivery voyages or when operators seize an opportunity to carry a particular cargo to or from a distant port. Nevertheless, cargo capacity, crew size, habitability, and capability for carrying fuel bunkers, fresh water and crew provisions usually restrict a coaster to voyages of hundreds rather than thousands of miles, certainly in European waters. The British definition of home trade limits, enshrined in the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 and in force until the 1970s, is useful in illustrating the typical range of a coaster, and how it has been extended. Home trade limits were set as the coasts of the British Isles, and the coast of continental Europe between Brest to the south and the River Elbe to the north. Within this range, ships could trade with uncertificated officers, which in practical terms meant men who had grown up in coastal vessels. After the Second World War the growing size of coasters and new trading opportunities led to the introduction of middle trade limits.These extended from Bergen to Santander and required officers to have foreign-going certificates, although the crew size was not greatly increased compared to ships in the home trade. Beyond middle trade, ships of whatever size had to be fully manned. From the mid-1970s, and influenced partly by international conventions, these limits were amended, and certification of officers became mandatory for all vessels. It is apparent that, in the eyes of authority, the certification of its officers and the size of its crew are of more importance than its physical size in deciding where a coaster can trade. Even within sight of land, coastal vessels can encounter hostile conditions, as witness Stephenson Clarke’s small bulk carrier Washington experiencing boisterous weather in the English Channel. 8
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The Clyde puffer Despite their name and diminutive size, the steamers that were developed in the waters of central Scotland could and did make substantial coastal and short-sea voyages. They developed contemporarily with the screw collier, the first puffer being identified as the Forth and Clyde Canal lighter Thomas, which had a simple steam engine and screw installed in 1856. Puffers multiplied rapidly, and although length was restricted to 66 ft for those that used the Forth and Clyde Canal, and to 88 ft for those navigating the Crinan Canal, these sizes suited the bulk cargoes moving between the two coasts of Scotland and west to its highlands and islands. Because of the size restrictions, design did not change greatly over a century, the major improvement being the use of compound engines with condensers that meant these steamers no longer puffed. Kaffir* of 1944 had characteristics of puffers built generations earlier, including the funnel ahead of the steering position, the boat on the deck and crew accommodation in the forecastle. Built and owned by the Hay family of Kirkintilloch, doyen of puffer operators, she was one of sixty-five constructed mainly in English yards during the Second World War, all but two destined for Admiralty service as Victualling Inshore Craft or ‘VICs’. Seen polluting the banks of the Clyde in June 1952, the 66-ft Kaffir was in 1962 the last of a handful of Hay puffers converted to diesel propulsion.This allowed the crew’s accommodation to be moved aft, but did nothing for her appearance. Conversion prolonged Kaffir’s life until September 1974 when she was severely damaged in Ayr Harbour and abandoned. (World Ship Society Ltd)
It was somewhat ironic that an English shipyard built the very last steam puffer, indeed the last steam-driven coastal cargo ship built in Britain and possibly anywhere. Ross & Marshall Ltd of Greenock (a rival to Hay, with which it merged in 1968) originally specified a diesel engine, but panicked when a Middle East oil crisis developed, and the 166-grt Stormlight* was completed in September 1957 with a coal-fired, compound engine. Builders were W J Yarwood & Sons Ltd, not a totally unexpected choice, because this Northwich yard had built small steamers for use on the rivers Weaver and Mersey for over half a century.The new Stormlight was photographed off Greenock in October 1957. In the long term, her machinery proved fatal to Stormlight. An 88-ft steamer proved costly and difficult to crew, and she was often laid up for want of stokers. In 1972 her owners, now Glenlight Shipping Ltd, sent her to Scott & Sons (Bowling) Ltd for conversion to a motor vessel. To economise, the owners specified inexpensive diesel engines transmitting their power to the propellor by a hydraulic system. But for reliability this machinery required more tender care than it routinely received, and breakdowns were not uncommon. Some sources blame engine failure for the demise of Stormlight, which on 15 December 1973,
during a ballast voyage from Campbeltown to Oban, ran on to rocks at Craighouse, Jura and was abandoned. However, other authorities maintain that her rudder jammed during gale-force winds.
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Whatever the cause, it was a sad end for a vessel that marked the culmination of 125 years of British steam coaster building. (Collection of the late Clive Guthrie)
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4 Steam Engine Amidships Although the earliest screw colliers and steam coasters had engines aft, it soon became the practice to move the machinery back to the amidships position that is usual in paddle steamers. Reasons given for this include reducing stress on the hull by placing the heavy mass of engines and boilers amidships, and improving trim when in ballast condition.The amidships position had, in fact, many drawbacks, including the need for a long screw shaft and a shaft tunnel that detracted from the capacity of after holds. Other reasons must have motivated designers, builders and owners to sustain this design for so long: was it simply tradition and the sentiment that ‘it looked right’? The smaller steamer with engines amidships could be considered simply as a variant of the steam coasters featured in Chapter 3. But given the extent to which these vessels were built and owned, especially by countries around the Baltic Sea, it is appropriate that they are dealt with more fully and have a chapter to themselves. It could be argued that their inclusion is stretching too far the definition of ‘coaster’ but, as the introduction explained, this term is of necessity elastic and includes vessels working on short-sea routes, and the so-called ‘Baltic’ types were ubiquitous in the short-distance timber trade from the Baltic into the North Sea and further south. An arbitrary upper limit of 270 ft has been placed on the size of ships featured in this chapter. No single nation’s builders can claim credit for the designs featured here. Inevitably, British yards built many of the early vessels, simply because these yards were in operation before iron and steel shipbuilding developed to any extent in other industrialised nations. However, yards in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United States also contributed notably to the fleet. Indeed, a yard in Norway became so closely associated with these vessels that the term ‘Fredrikstad-type’ was often applied to them.This also means that, for the first time in this book, British yards and owners do not dominate the story. This chapter, like the previous one, covers the period from the 1870s to the 1950s because, like the vessels in Chapter 3, basic design of these small steamers changed little over these decades. An asterisk in a caption indicates the vessel shown in the photograph.
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Hull developments in the 1930s Koster’s Gideona, described above, was ahead of her time in having a cruiser stern in 1924, because other builders adopted it only slowly so that counter sterns persisted well into the 1930s.The 1931-built Minerva* from NV Industrieele Maatschappij ‘De Noord’ at Alblasserdam demonstrated how much fuller was a cruiser stern, increasing the hull’s capacity aft. She represented a significant leap in size, with an overall length of 132 ft and a tonnage of 313 gross. Her hull has a forecastle (although the well deck bulwarks disguise this), a short
bridge deck and a quarterdeck, although this could also be described as a poop. Engines were by HumboldtDeutzmotoren AG of Cologne; German diesels such as these were a popular choice among Dutch builders. Minerva had been built as Apollinaris VI, part of a fleet of sail and later motor vessels that shipped branded mineral water down the River Rhine to the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In 1937, she became Barendsz, and the photograph of her with her gear lowered on the Thames dates from between 1953 and 1957, when she
Along with the cruiser stern, the raked stem made an appearance in the 1930s, and began to give the coaster a more modern look, at least to present-day eyes.The raking was rather tentative in the case of Progres, built in 1932 by Firma Gebroeder Niestern & Co at Delfzijl.The engine was made by Appingedammer Bronsmotorenfabriek, which was evidently an excellent choice because it did not need to be replaced until 1990. The 188-grt, 105-ft coaster is shown here as Fakir*, her second name and which she carried in 1950–52. She was owned at the time by E Smid of Groningen and managed as part of the large fleet of NV Scheepvaartbedrijf ‘Gruno’ of Amsterdam, one of the largest of the companies which looked after the interests of captain-owners. On 6 November 1952, Fakir stranded off Vaasa in Finland while bound for Nantes with a cargo of timber, and was declared a constructive total loss. Nevertheless, enterprising locals bought the wreck, had it repaired, and returned her to service as Zenita. Her later story is complex. Between repeated sales to fresh Finnish owners, she was lengthened by seven metres in 1961, renamed Jatta in 1983, and became Simona in 1990 after extensive repairs at Helsinki following a lay up on Lake Saimaa. For much of this time she was in the sand trade, and
probably remained so until 1 March 2004 when she arrived at Helsinki to be broken up.
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carried the name Minerva in the ownership of Captain J Schuur of Groningen, and management undertaken by Kamp’s Scheepvaart & Handelmaatschappij NV. Sale to German owners as Ingeborg saw her career close after collision with the Danish motor ship Manchuria near Cuxhaven on 7 December 1963. She was raised a few days later and put aground near Pagensand-Nord for emergency repairs, but was later sold to salvage company Ulrich Harms, which broke her up ‘in situ’ during 1967.
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Two-mast design A single mast was an almost universal feature of Dutch motor coasters in the 1920s, but the next decade saw the two-mast design become increasingly popular, although the former style persisted into the 1950s. Koster’s ‘Gideon’ yard may well have led the way again, building the two-masted Castor* in 1931. She was still of a very modest size, 116 ft registered length and 199 grt, but this arrangement of masts allowed easier stowage when loading a deck cargo such as timber from the Baltic, which was a significant trade for many Dutch owners.The low air-draught facility has not been lost, as both masts are in tabernacles to allow lowering.The whaleback forecastle was also a design feature of some Koster vessels, but one which did not endure. Castor was another ship to be in British employment during the Second World War, although there was an obvious difficulty in obtaining spares for her engine, built by Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutzmotoren AG at Cologne. It was probably for this reason that she had a fairly sedentary employment as a barrage balloon vessel in the
Mersey until she was returned to her former owners, N Mulder of Groningen, in June 1945. Unusually, Castor had just one name, one engine and just two further Dutch owners throughout her long career. Acquiring her in June 1970, her third owner had her for barely a month when
A further step in evolution of the motor coaster was the addition of a deck to the superstructure, which also gave those navigating the ship a pair of bridge wings. Seen lifting her forefoot in a good Channel swell, Coen* of 1935 was one of earliest coasters to have this feature, which was to become standard and to endure in new buildings for over thirty years.The twin-mast design has brought with it a cradle between the hatches to accept the ends of the derricks when stowed. The aerial view of Coen shows to advantage the acorn tops to her masts, picked out in a paler colour, a common feature of Dutch coasters and the subject of what is almost certainly a myth. For the captain-owner taking out a loan to finance his ship, it was a moment of joy when he had paid off his mortgage and ‘sailed his ship above water’.To celebrate this, it was said he fixed the acorn tops to his mast. Unfortunately for the veracity of this charming tale, examination of photographs of coasters on trial shows that they were universally built with this feature! Builder of this 290-grt, 125-ft coaster was Scheepswerf Gebroeder Niestern of Delfzijl, which fitted engines made by Appingedammer Brons. Owner at the time of the photograph was C van der Molen of Ymuiden. She was to have a relatively uneventful career, changing her name to Uranus in 1953 and three years later to Uranus-B, and surviving to be broken up at Krimpen a/d Ijssel in 1972.
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she foundered in heavy seas off Walton-on-the-Naze on 14 July 1970 while on a voyage from Rotterdam to Ipswich with a cargo of grain. Fortunately, the crew of four was rescued from their life raft by a passing British motor collier.
COASTERS
Early Everards Greenhithe-based F T Everard & Sons Ltd was an early exponent of motor coasters and for many years was unusually loyal to British hull and engine builders.This nationalism is interesting, because the founder’s family came from Germany and changed its name from Eberhardt to Everard in the face of anti-German sentiment during the First World War. The first dry cargo motor vessels built for Everard – as distinct from those that the company bought or had converted – were Ability* and Amenity, which were delivered by the yard of Fellows & Co Ltd at Great Yarmouth in January and July 1928.They were a modest 115 ft and 262 grt when completed, and during the 1930s were significantly lengthened, Ability becoming 137 ft and 293 grt in 1938.The two-stroke, five-cylinder engines were made by Plenty & Son Ltd, Newbury, a company that Everard saved from liquidation in 1932 and which henceforward supplied most of its diesel engines. By an unhappy coincidence the two coasters were lost through mines within three days of each other in November 1940. Amenity was damaged off the Humber on 15 November while on passage from Goole to Margate with coal and was subsequently sunk by gunfire. Ability sank off Clacton on 18 November while carrying cement from Everard’s home port of Greenhithe to Great Yarmouth.The cargoes they were carrying when
lost were typical of Everard’s trades up to the Second World War. (Ships in Focus)
While continuing to order small motor coasters, after Ability and Amenity Everard largely standardised on a raised quarterdeck, bridge-amidships design with hull lengths between 130 ft and 170 ft. Between 1930 and 1941, orders were shared between George Brown & Co of Greenock (an impressive seventeen units built) the Fellows yard at Yarmouth (two units) and the Goole Shipbuilding & Repairing Co Ltd (also two units). Cargo gear was invariably one mast and derrick ahead of the
fore hatch and one behind the after hatch. Activity* of 1931 came from Greenock, and was one of the shortest batch, with a hull of 135 ft and 358 grt. Her name was well deserved, as she gave the owners a remarkable thirty-five years of service, punctuated by re-enginings in 1946 and 1962. After being sold out of the fleet in 1966, she sailed on under the Greek flag as Giankaros and later Ioannis K. Her fate is not known to the author. The ships of this type were often ordered in pairs, 120
and the detailed design developed almost with each pair. From Actuosity of 1933, a cruiser stern replaced the counter seen in Activity, the bridge was heightened by an extra deck in the 175 ft Sincerity and Suavity of 1936–37, and Summity of 1939 introduced a raked bow. Four units had a short bridge deck. All had engines by Plenty, known after 1932 as Newbury Diesel Co Ltd. This basic design was successful and continued to be built until the mid1950s.
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Pollock’s prototypes Although James Pollock & Co Ltd was influential in promoting the small motor coaster and the Swedish Bolinders engine as discussed in Chapter 7, this Faversham shipyard built many more lighters, canal craft and tugs than it did coastal cargo vessels. Even some of the motor coasters it built were classified as motor barges, as in the case of four craft completed in 1932 for London-based sailing barge owner E J & W Goldsmith Ltd.The 94-ft Goldbell, Goldcrown, Golddrift and Goldeve had twin Bolinders engines.The last of the four is shown as Leaspray*, following a major rebuild in 1949 that saw her grow very modestly to 97 ft and 199 grt while a Crossley oil engine driving a single screw replaced her original twin Bolinders installation.The modest boom on her solitary mast seems inadequate even for her relatively short hold, and was probably used simply to lift her boat off the hatch covers. Goldeve took the name Leaspray in 1952 when acquired along with her three Goldsmith sisters by Coastal Tankers Ltd, a London company that had recently decided to specialise in dry rather than liquid cargoes. She remained Leaspray under subsequent ownerships in London, Cowes and Bridgwater until 1966 when she
moved to the Clyde as Warlight. She ended her days working for a civil engineering contractor under the name Teamwork and was broken up in 1976. Suitable for relatively short voyages with modestsized cargoes, Leaspray was nevertheless a coaster.
Several characteristics of Leaspray are apparent in a larger coaster built by Pollock in 1934, Camroux I*. She has the same upright bow, single mast (no boom) and full stern, but the wheelhouse is more substantial and, at 137 ft overall and 324 grt, there is room for boats on the poop. Camroux I and her sister Camroux II were to a standard hull design marketed by Pollock as the ‘Landina’ type and were by far the largest vessels the Faversham yard had yet built.The launch of Camroux I was filmed, and the public
invited to inspect her in return for a donation to charity. The pair was built for the Newcastle Coal & Shipping Co Ltd to work to a coal depot at Rosebank Wharf, Fulham, which required both a low air-draught to negotiate the many Thames bridges and a substantial ballast capacity to ensure they could return down river. Her original fourstroke engines were made by Humboldt-Deutzmotoren AG of Cologne but, when spares became unobtainable during the war, Camroux I received a British-made two121
stroke engine by H Widdop & Co Ltd, and this was in turn replaced by a British Polar unit in 1945.The latter engine appears to have given particularly long service. Sold by her Newcastle owners in 1960, Camroux I became The Marquis in the fleet of John Hay & Sons Ltd, Glasgow (by then a subsidiary of F T Everard & Sons Ltd). After a further sale to Greek owners in 1966, she remained in Lloyd’s Register until 2011, although it had heard nothing of the vessel since 1995, when named Stamata II.
COASTERS
Heavy lifters Heavy lift ships need substantial deck space combined with exceptional stability while hoisting on board items which may weigh several hundred tonnes. In the extraordinary Gloria Siderum*, both problems were solved by joining together two coasters. The two 186-ft hulls combined in this July 1969 to make this catamaran were the 1957-built Hada II, which formed the port side and Hermes of 1956. Both had been built by NV Scheepbouwwerf v/h de Groot & van Vliet at Slikkerveer, and given identical oil engines by D & J Boot. The port hull retained its masts and pair of 3-tonne capacity derricks, while the starboard side had a massive tripod mast fitted and which could lift 300 tonnes.The masts on the port hull were later replaced to increase deck space.The owner of the 1141-grt Gloria Siderum was the Gloria Navigation Line Company of Monrovia, Liberia, and manager was Holscher Shipping of Rotterdam. Much of the work of modern heavy lift ships has been for the offshore oil and more recently wind-farm industries, and in 1983 Gloria Siderum underwent a further conversion to a diving maintenance craft, retaining her big derrick, and given the meaningless name Multi Service 300. She seems to have spent an inordinate amount of time in one of the Rotterdam harbours devoted to laying up offshore craft, and drops out of Lloyd’s Register in the mid-1990s. (World Ship Society Ltd)
The heavy-lift vessels Aberthaw Fisher* and Kingsnorth Fisher were both purpose-built and coasters, completed in 1966 specifically to carry heavy items of equipment to power stations located around the British coast.The load was delivered to the ship on a road trailer that was manoeuvred on to a ramp on the ship’s after deck, and which could be lowered into the hold. When new, these vessels were based in Pomona Docks, Manchester, at the heart of what was Britain’s heavy electrical engineering industry, and were probably the last ships to use this part
of the Manchester dock system. Facilities intended for docking the ships were provided at the power stations served, although embarrassingly in one case these facilities proved too narrow for the ships. Builder of the 284-ft, 2355-grt Aberthaw Fisher (seen at Eastham in November 1985) was Ailsa Shipbuilding Co Ltd at Troon, with her sister coming from Hall, Russell & Co Ltd at Aberdeen. Both were owned by a company with long experience of moving heavy loads, James Fisher & Sons Ltd of Barrow-in-Furness, and by which the 202
vessels were chartered long term to the electricity industry. Following privatisation of this industry, Aberthaw Fisher was renamed National Generator in 1990, and in 1996 was sold for conversion to a diamond dredger for use off Namibia and renamed Moonstar. This does not seem to have been very successful because she was broken up in India during 2000. Kingsnorth Fisher was renamed New Generation in 1990, and remained in service until 2001 when, with her name shortened to New Gen, she sailed to Alang and the breakers. (Author)
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